


Here's my heart, Here's my mouth

by agirlnamedchuck



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Courtship, Cultural Differences, Dwarf Courting, Dwarf Culture, Everybody Lives, Festivals, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 03:53:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlnamedchuck/pseuds/agirlnamedchuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bilbo comes to Erebor for the Durin's Day Festival at Thorin's bequest, Fili fails at courtship, Kili fails at being a subtle matchmaker and Dis laughs at the failures of her kin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt that requested "fluffy Filbo". I sort of gave you that? I mean it'll be pretty fluffy but also funny? (I'm sorry I don't think I can do straight up fluff.)
> 
> We're just assuming that BOFA turns out veeerrry differently because that is a dick move and a bit of Deus ex machina if you ask me (which you didn't)
> 
> Title is from the song quiet by lights.
> 
> ALSO I SWEAR THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST CHAPTER, I'M JUST NOT SURE HOW TO MAKE IT SAY THAT INSTEAD OF MAKING IT SAY IT'S COMPLETE.

"Not much longer until we'll be able to see Erebor." Gloin said gruffly as they packed up their camp and readied their ponies. It didn't take them very long. Their company was made up of only four and within a few minutes they were back on the trails. 

Erebor would be a day away at the most and though no one had wanted to stop they'd all been so worn out from the ride that they had no choice but to. 

"This trip's certainly easier than the last time, aye Bilbo?" Bofur laughed and then nudged the very reason the dwarves had set back out east so soon after reclaiming their home. 

Bilbo flushed and nearly fell off his pony but smiled easily enough afterwards. "Much better than goblins or orcs." He agreed quietly, troubled as he was most of the time now. 

He was still unsure about all of this--coming all the way back to Erebor for the Durin's Day festival. To him it seemed odd that Thorin would wanted him back when they'd parted...on such bad terms, especially when all he'd heard was the stubborness of dwarves and how their grudges were said to be legendary. But his companions assured him that the King really was regretful and wanted to make amends. 

"Wasn't in his right mind." Nori had muttered that first night as he'd served three starving dwarves a dinner that had nearly emptied his kitchen. "Bit of a sickness but he means it."

"Stop looking so glum, tonight we won't have to sleep on the ground." Bofur said cheerfully and Nori winked, nodding his head. The two quickly got into a squabble with Nori insinuating that Bofur would most likely end up sleeping on the ground anyway after some dwarrowdam knocked him out. 

Bilbo laughed at them, smiling slightly. Perhaps he was over thinking it. If Thorin was still angry then it was more likely he wouldn't have bothered to talk at all. Spirits risen Bilbo looked to the horizon waiting for the moment when the Lonely Mountain would come into view. 

Somehow he had not expected Erebor to change in the near year since he'd last seen it. He expected it still to be covered in dust and rumble, a mess of a place with more ghosts in it than living. The few nights the company had stayed in the Kingdom before Bilbo had been cast out and the Battle of Five Armies had taken place hadn't endeared him to the place in the slightest. 

But this, staring at the sight before him Bilbo could easily imagine the Erebor of old, a real dwarvish Kingdom. It seemed Thorin Oakenshield had been a fine king after all. 

"What do you think burglar?" Nori teased. 

"We've managed to rebuild nearly all of it though some of the mines are down for now and half of the eastern living quarters still need to be repaired." Bofur added with some deserved pride, after recovering from the battle the company had steadily become many of the hardest of workers belonging to the city. After all what was the point in reclaiming their home if they didn't care for it?

Bilbo stared. 

"I think I've never seen so many dwarves in my life." Bilbo said faintly eyes wide. 

"You'll get used to it laddie." Gloin advised clasping him on the shoulder, the others started ahead and Bofur laughed loudly when he had to double back to grab a still hobbit. 

"We'll get someone to show you your room and hopefully some of the shock will have faded away." Bofur decided and they proceeded to lead Bilbo down several long hallways. Funny it hadn't seemed this big before. The dwarves knew exactly where they were going of course and Bilbo struggled to remember where everything was though he knew it would be hopeless. 

At last they came upon a wide-set of tall double doors--in front of them stood two impressive looking dwarves, garbed in armor. Gloin stepped forward and spoke to them in hushed Khuzdul gesturing to Bilbo who looked away when they glanced over. The guards nodded once and stepped away pushing the doors open. 

"Bilbo?" Bofur said in concern noticing the way the smaller man paled but Bilbo just shook his head and steeled himself. 

"After you." He murmured falling in between Bofur and Nori, Gloin already in the room. 

In the room sat eight dwarrows but he knew only four. Fili sat to the left of the tall chair that could only belong to the king. A spot next to the right hand side revealed Kili and sitting next to him was a dwarf he'd never seen but could easily recognize from the features she shared with her kin--the Lady Dis.

He didn't linger on the rest of the dwarves dressed in neat and rich looking clothes, uncomfortably aware of their curious stares, instead he looked around and there--talking with Gloin was Thorin himself. 

Bilbo felt the breath steal out of him and he couldn't help the shudder that ran through him but he stopped himself from doing it more than once and he kept his head up as Thorin came near them. 

"Leave us." Thorin instructed lowly and Bilbo was struck by how different his voice sounded from last time, the word betrayer ringing in his ears for a moment. All of the dwarves filed out of the room save for those he knew and Lady Dis.

"Thorin--your majesty." He greeted and the King frowned. 

"I would have us be friends as we once were burglar, and my friends simply call me by my name." Thorin said kindly, eyes solemn and he couldn't bear to see the visible regret in them. "And I would use this visit to pay for the harm I have done you."

Bilbo shook his head. "No harm has come to me and if there had been any, then all has long since been forgiven."

Thorin's frown deepened and he looked set to argue. 

"Uncle, stop hogging the hobbit." a familiar voice cut in and before he knew it Kili had pulled him away and into a hug grinning cheekily at his now scowling King. 

"Bilbo." Fili greeted, smiling widely joining in on the embrace.

They looked a little different from the last time he'd seen them during the battle--covered in blood and dirt. Fili had a scar on his neck from a wound that had almost slit his throat while Kili had one on his temple that stopped a few inches short from his eye though they were the only signs he could see from that battle he knew they both bore more as did the rest of the company. 

Even he hadn't made it unscathed with a few scars of his own the most impressive being the thick scar going down his side though at the time it'd been more hurtful then impressive to anyone.

Aside from their scars the two young dwarves were dressed in fine clothes as befitting their status though nothing as pompous looking as he'd seen a few of the other dwarves in the room wear.  
Still they were grinning as usual, the same old inseparable Fili and Kili.

Dis came over then and she studied him for a moment before smirking, "So this is the Hobbit that's enchanted my line so badly." she glanced over at her sons who both looked away.

'enchanted?' Bilbo mouthed at Bofur who only shrugged. 

"I suppose so, Lady Dis." Bilbo said politely still confused and slightly concerned for flushed the boys suddenly looked. Thorin raised an eyebrow at them and Dis' smirk only widened. 

"Bilbo, you must be tired! Why don't we show you where your rooms are?" Fili suggested and Bilbo sent him a grateful look. He wasn't quite sure what was going on with everyone right now but he felt exhausted from the trip here even if it had been more peaceful than before. 

Nori sighed, "You can come with me, I have to go see Balin so it's near there--"

"Fili can take him." Kili said at the same time and the room was silent for a moment. 

Bilbo looked over at Fili whose smile suddenly seemed strained. The hobbit frowned, did Fili not want to take him? 

"Fili can take him." Kili repeated firmly as if daring any of them to question it. Nori looked amused and pointedly stepped out of the way. 

Fili rolled his eyes at his brother but didn't protest. He turned to Bilbo and smiled, gesturing him onward. 

Bilbo glanced back at his friends but they had already looked away speaking in hurried whispers of Khuzdul with the only thing he understood being his name. Their walk was mostly silent. He and Fili had gotten on well enough from before but they'd never spent much time alone--with Kili or Ori at their side. Still he remembered the betrayal in Fili's eyes, had seen it reflected in most of the company's. He hadn't offended just Thorin by stealing the arkenstone even if none of them had reacted so badly. 

"You didn't have to show me around." Bilbo stuttered out for lack of anything else to say. "I could have found my own way." By the time he found his way Durin's Day would have long been over with. 

Fili shook his head. "It's fine Bilbo."

"Are you sure? I know Kili's just doing this to bother you." Bilbo said kindly thinking back to the many pranks he'd seen witnessed between the brothers. The journey had not always been full of excitement and when boredom struck everyone had been fair game especially your kin. 

The blond snorted and then muttered. "He thinks he's being funny is what he's doing."

"Hmm?"

Fili looked down at him, smile wide and true. He'd always liked Fili's beaming smile it had been one of the few comforts during the most miserable parts of their journey. "I swear I am perfectly happy to show you around, I don't waste my time doing things that I don't enjoy and I enjoy seeing a dear friend who hasn't been around in a while."

Bilbo flushed. "Oh."

His smile widened, "Why don't you tell me how the trip went? I'm sure the others will but they like to embellish things to make it seem like they suffered more."

The hobbit laughed, startled but started to do just that. The atmosphere between them settled into something more comfortable and before he knew it they had stopped. Bilbo was so surprised by it that he accidentally ran into Fili. 

"What?" Bilbo said confused, words slightly muffled by Fili's back. 

The dwarf laughed, a joyful pleasant sound. "We're at your rooms."

"Oh, of course." Bilbo said looking embarrassed as he moved back, he hadn't even noticed in the slightest. "Thank you, for guiding me here. I would have been lost without you."

"I thought you could find your own way." Fili teased, looking down at him with his bright eyes. 

Bilbo huffed but a smile came to his face. "Perhaps I exaggerated but only a little."

"Of course, I'm sure you would have found your own way in time." Fili said agreeably his grin widening. "I'm sure we might have spotted you for dinner by the time Kili became King."

"Oi, you! It wouldn't have taken that long and you know it." Bilbo said pretending to be offended. 

Fili laughed again. "I suppose you're right."

Bilbo opened his mouth to speak but let out a jaw cracking yawn instead. Fili watched him with wide eyes and then said warmly. "You should rest now. I'll come find you when it's time for dinner later if you're up for it."

He snorted and then said without thinking. "When has a hobbit ever passed up a meal?" However unintentional it was very true. Until that horrible winter so many years ago most Hobbits had never missed a meal in their lives. It wasn't until Bilbo had gone on his adventure that he'd missed a meal again. 

"Is that so?" Fili said amusement clear in his eyes and voice. 

Bilbo considered being embarrassed and then decided he was too tired for it. "Oh hush you." he said a great deal more fond then he'd intended it to be. "Leave a tired old hobbit alone."

Fili raised an eyebrow and Bilbo rolled his eyes and said he would see him later if he felt like being around such miscreants. The hobbit ventured into his room soon after and Fili stared at it for a moment and then shook his head and turned around and ran straight into his brother. 

"You're absolutely hopeless." Kili said cheerfully. "Worse than even Gimli and he's only sixty-two."

Fili rolled his eyes and started back down. There was another council meeting within half an hour and while he didn't attend all of them he did attend a surprising majority. 

"Is this what I'm going to have to deal with while our hobbit is here?" Kili asked following after him. "You two making moon eyes at each other without doing anything?"

"You need to get your eyes checked, Kee." Fili muttered quietly. 

"Hmm? What was that brother dearest?" Kili said with a grin. 

Fili sighed. "I said stay out of it, Kili. He's only staying for the Durin's Day festival."

"And if it starts to snow over before he leaves then he'll stay here until it thaws out." Kili pointed out. There wasn't much between the two but companionship but it was clear at least to him that Fili felt something more or could feel something more and who was to say that Bilbo did not or could not? 

"Stay out of it." Fili repeated and then paused and added awkwardly, "Not that there's anything for you to be in."

Considering the matter closed Fili went on to his meeting without saying another word. Kili however stopped and watched him leave, biting on his lip with a puzzled expression before he grinned. "The things you do for family."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this story was meant to be short but I have the feeling it won't be even with the fact that it happens within a specific timeframe!
> 
> It's very difficult to think up names for dwarf ladies, I hope you all know. 
> 
> Like always if you have comments/questions/concerns/prompts you can find me at Windyree.tumblr.com

Dinner with the dwarves was an interesting event and for not the first time it made Bilbo realize how valued the Durins were. While on their quest it was easy to forget that Thorin was a King and the boys his heirs. It was less so when they weren't dressed in travel clothes, in a hall with dwarves watching over them.

The entire meal Bilbo kept his head down and if he looked up it was only when one of the company spoke to him. He didn't doubt Thorin was regretful for his actions as Bilbo admittedly was of his own but that didn't stop many dwarves from feeling less than positive things on behalf of their King. When he'd made his way down to the dining hall more than a few had given him angry looks and he'd heard one whisper something harsh in Khuzdul. Some things were understandable in any language.

Still it was the first time he'd seen many of his friends in a year and he was determined to not let it ruin his visit. If anyone asked he said he was only so quiet because he was tired though from the concerned looks Balin sent him he had a feeling not everyone believed him.

Aside from his friends Bilbo met Gloin's wife Hervor and Bombur's wife Sigra and Dis' husband. Vili was a strange dwarf as far as Bilbo could tell though the most telling sign was that there were few dwarves among them who had such bright hair. Whereas the others were loud and jubilant he was quiet, his humor more tamed. He was such a contrast to his wife (and Dis was not bold the way her sons or Dwalin were but in her own equally vocal way) that it was almost a surprise.

"He's always had his own ways." Fili confided quietly with a shrug. "But there is no finer man than our father." Beside him Kili nodded in agreement.

Bilbo smiled at that. "My father was like that too. Everyone said the most outlandish thing he did was marry my mother." In Bilbo's opinion that wasn't entirely true but he supposed no one else had heard the tales of adventure and heroics that his father told him nightly and no one else had ever seen Bungo Baggins help his son pull tricks on unsuspecting folk.

The boys looked puzzled and Bilbo laughed, the sound catching some attention. "Well she was a Took and they're a foolhardy bunch, no one's more wilder in the Shire and even for the Thainship they're still barely respectable one way or another."

They still looked a bit confused and then Fili said it must be like the Ironfists consider the Stiffbeards less respectable despite both being major clans. Bilbo laughed agan when the two got into an argument on whether the Stiffbeards were actually less respectable then the Ironfists.

"What are they arguing about now?" Bofur said curiously.

Bilbo smiled at him."The respectability of Stiffbeards and Ironfists though it might have changed, I can never understand them when they stop finishing their sentences and jump right to the next."

Bofur snorted. " s'not about the clan that's respectable much as the people, though they're too young to know that."

He considered it and then decided he'd have to agree with Bofur. His mother had been a Took and then later a Baggins--both respectable in their own rights but she'd been as adventurous and wild as a dwarf, had even run away with a wizard and turned down her husband twice before finally accepting him--and even then that last time his mother had asked his father.

In many hobbits eyes Belladonna Took had been entirely unrespectable and he supposed he was now too.

"What's got you smiling so?" Bofur asked turning his attention away from the lads. He didn't think Bilbo had looked so happy since before they stopped in Rivendell and visited those elves.

Bilbo shook his head and said it was nothing but his smile remained for the rest of the night. Afterwards Kili asked him if he wanted to take a tour with him and his brother. "We know all the best spots." Kili said with a grin that had his mother rolling her eyes.

"I'm sure I'd be honored." Bilbo replied watching as Kili smirked at Dis.

Dis snorted. "Just make sure you don't get Mister Baggins lost."

Kili flushed and protested that they had only gotten lost once in a year and could she please not let that go. Dis replied that when you got so lost your mother had to spend an hour and a half searching for you that she was allowed to tease you about it as long as it pleased her.

"Aye, you'd cause diplomatic issues for sure--the hobbits would be outraged." Bofur said solemnly, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Come along Master Boggins, let's get away from those poisonous people." Kili said dramatically and then grabbed said hobbit scopping him up easily in his arms. Fili rolled his eyes following after them even as his mother started to laugh. "They're only poisonous to your ego, brother."

"Don't make us be forced to leave you too." Kili told him childishly but he was smiling. At last they were out of the hall and finally Bilbo was set down. He was glaring and laughing, sputtering on about how he wasn't a child and wouldn't be tried like one.

"Sometimes the maturity of you lads amazes me." Bilbo told him dryly as he adjusted his clothes back into place.

Fili frowned and quickly protested. "And what have I done? I only came out here in case you needed rescuing."

Bilbo laughed happily, cheeks flushed and looking much better than he had at dinner. "I'm sure it was a very noble effort but I don't think I need much rescuing."

Fili's frown disappeared quick as it came and he grinned down at the smaller man sparing his brother a mischievous glance. "I suppose you don't. After fighting dragons and goblins a dwarf like Kili is no trouble."

"What do you mean a dwarf like me?" Kili said scowling.

"Come on Bilbo, if you want I can show you the library first. Ori should still be there." Fili said ignoring his brother. He held out his arm and smirked when Bilbo took it still laughing, Kili's sqwauking growing louder.

"Oi, I was talking to you!"

Bilbo couldn't deny that by the end of his 'tour' he was impressed. Contrary to Dis' fears the boys didn't get him lost once and showed him as much of the castle though Bilbo's favorite part was in fact the library and he spent more than a few minutes chatting excitedly with Ori. "It's very impressive." Bilbo confided when they had brought him back to his room.

Fili lounged in a chair and Kili sprawled on the floor near the fireplace. "So you like it then? Maybe we'll manage to convince you to stay longer than Durin's day." Kili teased and Fili glared at him but said nothing. This was probably his way of getting back at him for his comments from earlier.

"I don't think I could survive in a mountain forever, not one where the ground is so far away." Bilbo said and Fili saw his brother's keen eyes narrow--the same look his mother had when she was being particularly sly. In Fili's opinion Kili was far too much like their clever mother, only he had less sense.

"Is that your only objection then?" Kili questioned. "You'd be too far away from the ground?"

Bilbo frowned, half-asleep by this point but managing to answer anyway. "I suppose so? There's no real reason why I couldn't stay but there's no real reason for me to stay." He'd never considered leaving the Shire, leaving his home. He doubted any hobbit did. But it was possible enough, hobbits were not unchanging and solid as stone but adaptable like the good ground and the eager green.

Kili opened his mouth to speak and Fili decided he had enough easily slipping into a story about Oin and a hearing mishap that made Bilbo laugh. At some point though Bilbo would never remember exactly when he fell asleep, his head resting against Fili's chair.

"You're adorable brother, really." Kili drawled watching as Fili picked up their sleeping friend and put him in his bed. Kili couldn't entirely blame him there had been more than a few times where either of them had woken up with a crick in their neck from sleeping on the floor.

Fili sighed. "I thought I told you to stop this."

"And what am I doing exactly? Showing him around the mountain he helped reclaim, asking him if he'd like to stay?" Kili challenged. "Who's to stay I'm doing those things entirely for you?"

His brother frowned and Kili thought despite the coloring he looked an awful lot like Thorin--a true son of Durin he was. "Explain?"

"He's lonely, he needs his friends--the people who care about him." Kili said quietly and they both looked to the hobbit still fast asleep. "Bofur and Gloin said he barely talked the entire trip here and even Nori confirmed it in his own way, they said he thought Thorin was still angry at him."

"Kili--" Fili started and he shook his head, a frown of his own starting.

"Sometimes things in your life happen and they change you, you can't step away from it, cant come back to what you were." Kili said sounding older and wiser than he was but Fili knew it to be true, they both had. How many things had happened in their lives that had marked them? How many things had scarred the line of Durin?

Even now he and his kin were changed. From the moment they'd reclaimed Erebor, to that damn battle. Thorin's guilt ran deeper now than it had once before, their mother looked at them more and sometimes Fili thought she was trying to memorize them, or perhaps she was seeing how close she'd come to losing them. Sometimes he had nightmares, sometimes he dreamed of his throat being slit open, of Kili's arm being cut off and watching his baby brother bled out.

Sometimes he dreamed of failing.

Yes, he knew very well how things could mark you. The scar around his neck was proof enough.

"You think the quest was that for him?"

Kili shrugged. "I won't pretend to know his mind. But a man who isn't lonely doesn't go away on a journey and then go back again a year later when he's not even sure if his return will be celebrated or punished."

He yawned suddenly and Kili smiled, looking lighter and happier. "Don't look so troubled, brother. Mister Boggins does as he pleases and I think he will be happy as long as he is surrounded by friends."

Fili followed his brother back to their rooms, deep in thought. No matter what Kili thought his feelings towards Bilbo were little more than an infatuation, just like the kind he used to have on pretty dwarrowdams back in the Blue mountains. He'd thought him soft at first, pretty but useless. It was not until he'd seen the steel underneath, the iron strength of his courage and determination that he'd felt anything deeper. Bilbo was braver than many dwarves he knew and funnier than half of them with that dry wit of his.

He was not sure he could open his heart, not to someone so unreadable as Bilbo--not to someone who was not a dwarf but he could be friends. He could make sure Bilbo was happy until Durin's Day came and he left back to his Shire.

Only Fili was not sure if he himself would be happy when Bilbo left. The hobbit had been here for only a day and already things felt easier than they had in a year. Still he was meant to be King, this would not the be the first thing he'd set aside his own happiness for and he knew that it would not be the last.


End file.
